Distribution:
This frog is common in the southern Great Plains from eastern New Mexico and northern Texas north to extreme southeastern South Dakota and east into southern Iowa, northern Missouri, and central Illinois. In Nebraska it is found mostly in the eastern two-thirds of the state. Currently it is absent from all of the panhandle counties except Garden County; however, it appears to be colonizing areas north and west of its historic range. It readily hybridizes with Northern Leopard Frogs where their ranges overlap. Hybrids often can be recognized by having traits of one species on one half of the body and the other species on the other half. For example along the eastern Niobrara River in Knox County, individuals have been found with a light spot on one tympanum but not the other and with one continuous dorsolateral fold and one broken one.
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• Occurrence Summary:  
• 2,248
  Records 
• 2,248
  Museum Vouchers 
• 0
  Other Observations 

Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Adams (37); Boyd (3); Buffalo (36); Burt (20); Butler (5); Cass (20); Cedar (47); Chase (42); Cherry (18); Clay (3); Colfax (15); Cuming (72); Custer (15); Dakota (1); Dawson (1); Dixon (23); Dodge (155); Douglas (47); Dundy (8); Fillmore (1); Franklin (19); Furnas (12); Gage (24); Garden (6); Garfield (5); Gosper (2); Greeley (2); Hall (54); Hamilton (3); Harlan (38); Hayes (1); Hitchcock (28); Holt (13); Hooker (1); Howard (6); Jefferson (17); Johnson (4); Kearney (18); Keith (3); Knox (8); Lancaster (931); Lincoln (68); Loup (5); Madison (6); Merrick (14); Mills (1); Nance (2); Nemaha (14); Nuckolls (2); Otoe (18); Pawnee (12); Perkins (5); Phelps (14); Pierce (1); Polk (14); Red Willow (1); Richardson (25); Rock (2); Saline (13); Sarpy (140); Saunders (10); Seward (13); Sherman (3); Stanton (14); Thayer (1); Thurston (18); Unknown (5); Valley (1); Washington (27); Wayne (7); Webster (26); York (2);

Natural History:
Ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and any other suitable body of water can be considered habitat for the Plains Leopard Frog. This species is known to temporarily wander far from water as long as moist conditions exist. A true grassland species, it spends much of its time lurking in vegetation along the banks of water bodies where its tan and spotted coloration affords it great camouflage. Plains Leopard Frogs are one of the earliest frogs to emerge during spring in Nebraska. They can be found moving during rainy nights in mid-March but do not start calling until 1-2 weeks later. Their advertisement call is a series of chucks that end in a slightly longer chuck (chuck-chuck-chu-u-u-ck) and sounds similar to fingers rubbing on a balloon. Breeding occurs with mid-spring rains, and tadpoles usually metamorphose into froglets by August. In northern reaches of their range tadpoles may overwinter and metamorphose during early spring of the following year. Although they are mostly nocturnal, they generally leave the water during daytime hours and rest along grassy banks. When startled they make huge leaps into the water while squeaking out an escape sound. Once in water, they take cover under vegetation or other debris until it is safe to resurface. Food consists of arthropods such as insects and other invertebrates.

Occurrence Activity:

Chorusing:

Audio recording by Keith Coleman.

Chorusing Phenology: The black outlined dots denote the Julian date (day of the year; 1 January = 1 to 31 December = 365) an observation was made. The thin red line depicts the range of dates between the beginning of the first, and end of the fourth quartile (excluding outliers; Tukey method). The thick light blue bar represents the second and third quartile (interquartile range; the middle 50% of all observations). Only one observation per Julian date is included in the graphs; so a date with multiple observations carries the same weight as a date with only one observation. The vertical bars correspond to the 12 months of the year; January through December.
# Unique Obervations: ; Range: ; Interquartile range: ;

Remarks: